Foreign, Dangerous, and Disgusting Objects in Our Food

When you order food or buy it, you expect that the only thing in that food would be the otherwise palatable and edible ingredients that you would expect to be in that food. But unfortunately, that isn’t the case sometimes. Sometimes, we find things in our food or food products that should not be there.

Different Foreign Objects

Foreign objects or ingredients in food sounds like one type of case, but actually, these kinds of cases can have different forms.

In some cases, it may be that something in the food is perfectly edible, it’s just not disclosed, and may even be dangerous. For example, imagine a restaurant that sells an item without disclosing that it has peanuts in it. Peanuts, inherently, are safe—unless you have a food allergy, in which case the failure to disclose the ingredient can potentially be deadly.

The same goes with certain kinds of seeds or pits, which are technically edible, but which just shouldn’t be in most kinds of foods that we order. For people with gastrointestinal disorders—or anybody who can crack teeth on these items when they are in food unexpectedly—things like seeds, pits, or kernels can be dangerous, even though they are, technically, palatable and edible.

Non-Food Items

Other times, it is an item that is completely unrelated to any food product that is found in our food. As disgusting as it sounds, things like bugs or animal parts, garbage, or bodily fluids may be in foods. Even things that aren’t disgusting, but which aren’t food, can be in food products—things like metal or plastic.

With any hard object, be it an edible product or an item not intended for human consumption, an unexpected product in food can do significant damage to the teeth and jaw. The mouth bites down, not expecting to get resistance, and when it does because of a hard, solid foreign object, torn jaw muscles can happen, as can cracked teeth.

Damages for Foreign Objects

Foreign objects in food can have a unique difficulty, legally, because there may not be any harm or actual damage—that is, the exposure to the foreign object may just be “gross,” but may not cause any injury in the short or long term. In these kinds of cases, juries can still award damages, where the foreign object is so objectionable and distasteful that it would shock the conscience of the average person.

Don’t Throw it Away

The gut reaction when you find something in food that shouldn’t be there, is to throw it out (the object or the food product). If you can avoid it, don’t do that—the food product with the foreign object is evidence in your case. If you can, get a photograph of the object that shouldn’t have been there so that you can document your case.

Did you come into contact with a foreign object or item in your food product? Contact the personal injury lawyers at Cameron Law today at 702-745-4545 for a free consultation about getting compensation for your damages.

Sources:

foodsafetytech.com/column/how-foreign-material-inspection-can-impact-your-liability-from-packaging/

youtube.com/watch?v=1C8nl8eBoq0